High brightness projection systems typically require an illumination source that has a large volume and high cost. Typical illumination sources use, for example, high pressure mercury lamps or, alternatively, three light emitting diodes (LEDs), i.e., one LED for each color and additional space requirements for dichroic filters to combine the light for single panel systems. There is a desire to reduce the volume and cost of illumination sources, e.g., to be used in compact imaging devices, sometimes referred to as “pocket projectors”.